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You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

We begin the long march to ecstasy perfumed with oblivion & beads of sweat,

fight lions after binding ourselves back to back with a muscular vine,

& nearly drown during an eclipse.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

The comedy club requires fingerprints pressed to a screen,

same as the eyeglasses store.

We discover a boat within the boat we dig out of sediment.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

We mistake The Code of Hammurabi Avenue for Morse Code Boulevard

& I screw the wrong cap onto the tube of Crazy Glue.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

We discover criminal activity undertaken in broad daylight,

both admitted and denied, by officials with strange eyes,

in the slow drip of cryptic deceit.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

Your voice echoes like Artaud reciting history inside a hollow stone sphinx,

electric lights in the Department of Missing Persons flicker & darken.

Your name on the envelope blows into the wind like a rose petal.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

Newspapers breathlessly report the relationship of nothingness to nothingness,

& emergency measures forbid speaking while purchasing milk or cotton or soap.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

You journey to the asteroid dead in its tracks above a cornfield

& wash smoke out of your hair.

I juggle my shoes & drag a burlap bag of chicken bones

& broken pencils.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

A cluster of oracles attribute your obsession with mirrors to a butterfly

glowing (& menacing) with translucent wings emanating fiery heat.

The ocean heaves pulverized rubies ashore, fine as ash,

to wash & purify children of the mirror.

We learn to walk beneath a translucent sun.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

You kick burning tires down the street in an existential city.

We listen beneath the shaded archway, as hairline cracks develop,

as Hannibal requires his elephant-drivers, courtesans & spies

explain the subtle yet vivid green of pine needles.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

The fast food drive-thru employee ceremoniously hands you clove cigarettes,

chess pieces & thorns in a glass bowl instead of French fries.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

A washing machine shaking violently loosens bolts in the concrete floor.

Van Gogh cannot reach his face & tied to the bed he sobs.

Postage stamps & bathing beauties innocently beguile.

Floppy hats disguise civilizational collapse.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

During the siege of a walled city you discover your name on a secret list,

& the falling moon in a constellation of automobile headlamps signals

the beginning of the one true revolution.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

Nefertiti hypnotizes The Beatles,

a herd of llamas escape,

& blind tourists robbed at gunpoint refuse to laugh it off.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

They parade out the latest deadly cures,

the dancing nurses smash jars of green pickles,

& Mona Lisa announces to the world she is closing the curtain permanently.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

You report a rickshaw collision with angels & the police accuse you of mischief.

A work crew sent by unknown authorities to seal the sacred spring

develops amnesia,

& you have the same dream three times each night. 

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

A shaman anoints the tip of your nose with a white paste,

a figure behind a streaked glass windshield adjusts frequencies

aiming a device dead centre on a wasp nest,

& inside the mountain cavern after a day of climbing your stomach feels better.

¥ou call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

Ice cream tastes like karma,

death comes around wearing a fur coat with a giant collar of darker fur,

& everybody looks like Peter O’Toole having a panic attack.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

You continue to gaze at the Encyclopedia of Bare Feet Upon Grass

even as I warn you of dangers in Babylon.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

You write on the chalkboard while sitting on a camel & departing the oasis.

A waterspout of insects shoots up, fractal as stained glass,

escaping a bottomless chalk-lined chamber.

I pilot a butterfly.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

An avalanche of icicles disturbs the tiger’s sleep,

a junkyard dog wearing a suicide vest runs loose in the marshmallow factory,

& black parakeets swooping in dark staircases resemble inky typography.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

A devotee of the Forgotten World Religious Society tumbles bars of soap

into a growling & flashing volcano.

The guardian of the portal sends us on a wild goose chase,

& a painter specializing in ferns claims to be Heironymus Bosch reincarnated.

You call my name, or something similar, in your sleep or in my dream.

The scientist wearing a stethascope & white coat nursing the anvil

with a baby bottle

repeats your name and assigns you a number.

Original image. Gouache & water-soluble graphite on paper, 2021.

Variations digitally created in Photoshop, 2024.